Sunday, December 19, 2010

It’s absolutely true that I never met a Lonely Planet book I didn’t like. The outfit brings a certain bold and contemporary stance to the way they view the world. This combined with super photos and salient information about the countries and regions under discussion combine to make it clear why they’ve been the leader in their field pretty much since they left the gate.

The Europe Book is no exception. Even armchair travelers and those doing a little light research will enjoy these fast and dirty dips into every country in Europe. And since some of these are fairly new countries, there’s a lot of fresh material here.

Take, for instance, Slovenia. You don’t realize how much you don’t know about Slovenia until you take this on. Here, for instance, is the dek for the Slovenia page: “A tiny, young republic in Southeastern Europe of jaw-dropping natural beauty, Slovenia can lay claim to being one of the greenest countries in the world.” See what I’m saying: I knew almost none of that and it’s interesting to have it delivered in a nutshell along with a bunch of great facts, some awesome photos and everything, basically, you need to know to begin to decide if you’re going to put Slovenian dates on your European tour. It’s not, obviously, enough to help you much on your journey, but Lonely Planet has that covered, too. Of course. Lonely Planet Slovenia was published this past June. ◊